Cooling tube mechanism for an I.S. machine

ABSTRACT

A parison is blown into a bottle in a mold at the blow station of an I.S. Machine. Pressurized air is supplied to the mold through a cooling tube which will be displaced downwardly from an up position, where the parison will be blown into a bottle, to a down position following the formation of the bottle. The pressure of the air is decreased as the cooling tube is displaced from the up position to the down position.

This invention relates to an I. S. Machine and more particularly to amechanism which has displaceable cooling tubes for cooling the interiorof a bottle after it has been formed in a blow mold of the machine.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Glass bottles are manufactured in an I. S. Machine in a two-stepprocess. A “parison” is first formed in a blank station and the parisonis then delivered to a blow station where the parison, located within ablow mold, is blown into a bottle. The blown bottle can be displaced toa dead plate and, when cooled, pushed onto a conveyor for removal fromthe machine. Heat can be removed from a formed bottle by chilling theouter surface or by flowing air through a blow tube into the bottleinterior.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,776,010, discloses a blow station of an I. S. Machinewhich utilizes a blow tube which is oscillated during the time when abottle is in the blow mold and U.S. Pat. No. 6,766,665, discloses postblow station structure which utilizes an oscillating tube to continuethe flow of cooling air into the bottle following the removal of thebottle from the blow station.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved coolingtube mechanism for introducing cooling air into bottles formed in an I.S. Machine

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following portion of this specification and from theaccompanying drawings which illustrate, in accordance with the patentstatutes, a presently preferred embodiment incorporating the principlesof the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic showing of a blow head mechanism for an I. S.Machine made in accordance with the teachings of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevational cross sectional view of the top portion of theblow head column illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a slidable support for the cooling tubeassembly;

FIG. 4 is a portion of a horizontal cross sectional view of the columntaken at 4-4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a top view of the cooling tube assembly;

FIG. 6 is an elevational view of the cooling tube assembly;

FIG. 7 is cross sectional view of a cooling the head and associated flowcontrol;

FIG. 8 is an oblique view showing an alternate coupling device for thecooling tube chuck shown in FIG. 7; and

FIG. 9 is a logic diagram illustrating the control of air pressure tothe cooling tubes as a function of position as they are displaced fromthe up position to the down position following the blowing of a parisoninto a bottle; and

FIG. 10 is a logic diagram illustrating the control of the verticaldisplacement of the control arm as a function of blow head pressure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 illustrates a blow head mechanism for an I. S. Machine whichincludes a guide arm 10 which is mounted on a vertical post 12. The post12 is coupled to an electronic (servo) motor 14 which causes the guidearm to move between up and down locations. A conventional scroll camassembly 16, causes the guide arm to pivot between retracted andadvanced positions. The up/retracted position is the “off” position andthe advanced/down position is the “on” position. The blow head mechanismalso includes a cooling tube arm assembly 18 which supports a number ofcooling tubes 20 which correspond in number to the number of bottlesbeing formed in the blow station. The cooling tube arm assembly is shownat its first position where the cooling tubes extend downwardly intovertical openings in the guide arm. Suitable guides 22 are located atthe top of these openings in the guide arm. Blow heads 24 are secured tothe guide arm at the bottom of these openings. The cooling tube armassembly is mounted on the post 12 and will move with the guide armbetween on and off positions. At the first position, a parison could beblown into a bottle within a blow mold. The cooling tube guide assemblyis also displaceable between the illustrated first position, where thebottom of the cooling tubes are located for blowing a parison into abottle and a second position, shown in dotted lines, where the coolingtubes have been lowered a selected distance D, which corresponds to theinsertion of the cooling tube to a position proximate the bottom of theblow bottle.

The drive assembly for the cooling tube arm assembly is shown in FIG. 2and includes a servo motor 30 connected via a coupling 32 to a leadscrew 34. The lead screw is operatively associated with a nut 36 whichcan be driven along the inner bore 38 defined in the upper portion ofthe post 12. The nut has a pin receiving hole 40 and the post has anelongated vertical slot 42. Vertically displaceable along the outersurface of the post is a slide housing 50 (FIG. 3). Proximate the top ofthe slide housing is a collar 52 having a boss 53 which supports a key54 (see also FIG. 4) having a first key portion 56 for fitting the slot42 of the post and a second pin portion 58 for fitting the pin receivinghole 40 in the nut 36. The slide housing will accordingly be verticallydisplaced with the nut.

Releasably secured to the slide housing is the cooling tube arm 18. Thecooling tube arm has a cylindrical mounting sleeve portion 60 (FIG. 5)which is slidingly received by the slide housing and which can besecured to the slide housing at any vertical location below the collar52 and at any angular position with a mounting screw 62. The mountingsleeve portion 60 has a keyed portion 64 which receives a correspondingportion 66 at the end of the arm portion 68 of the cooling tube arm. Thecooling tube arm supports an elongated plenum or fluid chamber 70.Compressed air or other cooling fluid is supplied, via an inlet 74 (FIG.6) on the mounting sleeve portion 60, to a mounting sleeve portion bore76. This bore communicates with a bore 78 in the arm portion 68 whichcommunicates via opening 80 with the interior 82 of the plenum chamber.Access to the plenum chamber is provided by a top 83 secured by suitablescrews 85.

A cooling tube chuck 72, for each cooling tube, is attached to thebottom wall 73 of the plenum chamber. The cooling tube chuck, shown inFIG. 7, is defined by a conventional collet 90, a conventional colletnut 91, and a conventional collet holder 95, which has a first threadedend 93 for receiving the collet nut. The conventionally tapered end ofthe collet holder has been modified to include a second externallythreaded 92, reduced diameter post portion 97 sized to pass through ahole 99 in the bottom wall 73 of the plenum chamber. The post portionreceives a clamp nut 94 for sealingly mounting the collet holder on thebottom wall of the plenum chamber. A stepped axial hole 101 extendsthrough the collet holder. Alternately, the collet holder 95′ may bedesigned to have an enlarged clamp plate 109 (FIG. 8) which can bereleasably secured to the bottom wall of the plenum chamber from theoutside of the plenum chamber via suitable screws 105 (the post 97′ neednot be externally threaded with this attachment). The cooling tube chuckreleaseably holds a collet 90 suitable for holding a particular coolingtube 20. The collet holder 95, 95′ is effectively sealed via aninside/outside sealing ring 103 (an available collet accessory). Theouter diameter of the cooling tube is selected to correspond with theinner seal dimension. Cooling tubes can accordingly be quickly attachedto or removed from the plenum chamber.

The inner annular surface of the reduced diameter post 97, 97′ openingis radiused/bevelled 96, 96′ and located axially above the post is aneedle valve 100, which is at the end of a threaded shaft 102. Thethreaded shaft is received by a threaded hole 104 in a boss 106 and hasa turn knob 108 at the top. Flow into each cooling tube can accordinglybe varied to achieve the desired flow through each cooling tube.

In operation, a parison, located in a blow mold, can be blown into abottle when the guide arm and the cooling tube arm are at theadvanced/down position and the cooling tube arm is at the first, blowparison, up position. The cooling tube functions as the blow tube of theblow head. Once the parison has been blown into a bottle the blow tubearm can be displaced vertically from the first position to the second,bottom or down, position to deliver cooling air, as desired, at alocation proximate the bottom of the bottle. While the invention hasbeen disclosed as a blow head mechanism, the structure, minus theblowheads could be a mechanism used to cool bottles at a dead platelocation or at any subsequent location in the glass process.

As shown in FIG. 1, air under pressure can be supplied to the coolingtube arm from a suitable source S/110 of high pressure air. The suppliedair passes through an electronically controlled proportional valve(EPV/112) at a Pressure selected by a suitable Control 114. As shown inFIG. 1, the Control supplies a Displacement Profile to the Motor 30 andreceives Cooling Tube Position data from the motor 30. When the Control,as shown in FIG. 9, answers the query “Is Blow Tube At “First” (BlowParison) Position”/116 in the affirmative and determines that theparison has been blown into a bottle (answers the query “Has ParisonBlown Into A Bottle”/118 in the affirmative), it will issue a signal,“Displace Blow Tube Down To Second Bottom Position”/120 and willconjointly “Decrease Blow Pressure From P_(first) to P_(second) As BlowTube Moves From The First Position To The Second Position”/122. Thesystem may either automatically determine that the parison has beenblown or the time of this event may be set by the operator based on hisexperience. Such decrease in pressure may be linear.

FIG. 10 illustrates a control algorithm for the guide arm. When the blowheads are at the “on” position, the Control 114 will issue aninstruction to Apply Blow Pressure 130. When the control answers theinquiry “Has Parison Been Blown Into A Bottle” 132 in the affirmative,which can be based on detecting a drop in pressure at the blow headpressure sensor 133 or by the operator setting an event angle in thetiming control for the time when he believes formation occurs, theControl 114 will “Displace The Guide Arm To Follow Defined PressureProfile Until Blow Head “Off” 134. The operator can input the desiredPressure Profile. For example, the Pressure Profile may be a constantpressure profile set at a level that will maintain the blown parisonagainst the inner surface of the mold. The guide arm 10 wouldaccordingly be displaced to a location where the heads were spaced fromthe top of the blow molds and would thereafter be displaced verticallyup or down in response to an increase or decrease in the pressure ofSource air delivered to the cooling tube. In the above situation wherethe source pressure is reduced, following blowing the parison into abottle, as the cooling tube is lowered and the pressure reduced, thisalgorithm would result in the blow head, being displaced toward the topof the blow mold to maintain the desired constant internal pressure. ThePressure Profile could also provide for an increase in internal pressureas a function of time following the blowing of the parison. This couldbe the case, for example, in the event that the source pressure wassubstantially increased following the blowing of the parison and thepartial cooling of the bottle. The arm could follow a pressure profilewhere the pressure increases over time (the arm would be progressivelylowered) as the bottle progressively cools and strengthens.

1. A mechanism for delivering a cooling fluid to the interior of a hotglass bottle after it has been formed in a blow mold of an I.S. Machinecomprising a guide arm including a plurality of blow heads; acorresponding number of vertical cooling tubes operatively associatedwith said blow heads; a vertical post, said guide arm being operativelycoupled to said vertical post; a cooling tube arm assembly beingoperatively coupled to said vertical post; a motor for displacing saidcooling tube arm assembly independently of said guide arm between afirst up position and a second down position; wherein said second downposition of said cooling tube arm assembly positions said verticalcooling tubes within the bottle; a source of pressurized air; conduitmeans for connecting said source of pressurized air to said verticalcooling tubes; pressure regulator means in said conduit means fordefining the pressure of the air delivered to said cooling tubes; and acontrol for operating said motor to displace said vertical cooling tubesfrom said up position to said down position, wherein when the coolingtubes are in the up position the glass bottle is formed with a firsthigh pressure air and when the cooling tubes are in the down positionthe glass bottle is cooled with a second lower pressure air, and forconjointly operating said pressure regulator to decrease the pressure ofthe air supplied to said vertical cooling tubes from the first higherpressure to the second lower pressure as said vertical cooling tubes aredisplaced from said up position to said down position.
 2. A mechanismfor delivering a cooling fluid to the interior of a hot glass bottleafter it has been formed in an I.S. machine according to claim 1,wherein the decrease in pressure from said first higher pressure to saidsecond lower pressure is linear.
 3. The mechanism for delivering acooling fluid to the interior of a hot glass bottle of claim 1,including an electronically controlled proportional valve coupled to thesource of pressurized air and the control.
 4. The mechanism fordelivering a cooling fluid to the interior of a hot glass bottle ofclaim 1, wherein said vertical post includes a vertical slot and a leadscrew within the post, the lead screw coupled to the motor and includinga nut coupled to the guide arm.
 5. The mechanism for delivering acooling fluid to the interior of a hot glass bottle of claim 4,including a slide housing for sliding vertically on the vertical postabove the guide arm and including a key for extending through thevertical slot for interconnecting the slide housing and the nut.
 6. Themechanism for delivering a cooling fluid to the interior of a hot glassbottle of claim 5, including the cooling tube arm assembly coupled tothe slide housing, wherein the cooling tube arm assembly is configuredto move vertically as the nut moves on the lead screw, the cooling tubearm assembly including the plurality of cooling tubes associated withthe plurality of blow heads.
 7. A mechanism for delivering a coolingfluid to the interior of a hot glass bottle after it has been formed ina blow mold of an I.S. Machine comprising a guide arm including aplurality of blow heads; a cooling tube arm assembly including acorresponding number of vertical cooling tubes operatively associatedwith said blow heads; a motor for displacing said cooling tube armassembly relative to said guide arm from a first up position to a seconddown position; wherein said second down position of said cooling tubearm assembly positions said vertical cooling tubes within the bottle; avertical post having a vertical slot and a lead screw within the post,the lead screw coupled to the motor and including a nut coupled to theguide arm; a source of pressurized air; conduit means for connectingsaid source of pressurized air to said vertical cooling tubes; pressureregulator means in said conduit means for defining the pressure of theair delivered to said cooling tubes; and a control for operating saidmotor to displace said vertical cooling tubes from said up position tosaid down position, wherein when the cooling tubes are in the upposition the glass bottle is formed with a first high pressure air andwhen the cooling tubes are in the down position the glass bottle iscooled with a second lower pressure air, and for conjointly operatingsaid pressure regulator to decrease the pressure of the air supplied tosaid vertical cooling tubes from the first higher pressure to the secondlower pressure as said vertical cooling tubes are displaced from said upposition to said down position; wherein each of said vertical coolingtubes is arranged and configured to function alternately as a blow tubeand as a cooling tube.
 8. The mechanism for delivering a cooling fluidto the interior of a hot glass bottle of claim 7, including a slidehousing for sliding vertically on the vertical post above the guide armand including a key for extending through the vertical slot forinterconnecting the slide housing and the nut.
 9. The mechanism fordelivering a cooling fluid to the interior of a hot glass bottle ofclaim 8, including the cooling tube arm assembly coupled to the slidehousing, wherein the cooling tube arm assembly is configured to movevertically as the nut moves on the lead screw, the cooling tube armassembly including the plurality of cooling tubes associated with theplurality of blow heads.
 10. A mechanism for delivering a cooling fluidto the interior of a hot glass bottle after it has been formed in anI.S. machine according to claim 7, wherein the decrease in pressure fromsaid first higher pressure to said second lower pressure is linear. 11.The mechanism for delivering a cooling fluid to the interior of a hotglass bottle of claim 7, including an electronically controlledproportional valve coupled to the source of pressurized air and thecontrol.
 12. A mechanism for delivering a cooling fluid to the interiorof a hot glass bottle after it has been formed in a blow mold of an I.S.Machine comprising a guide arm including a plurality of blow heads; acooling tube arm assembly including a corresponding number of verticalcooling tubes operatively associated with said blow heads; a motor fordisplacing said cooling tube arm assembly and said vertical coolingtubes independently of said guide arm between a first up position and asecond down position; a vertical post having a vertical slot and a leadscrew within the post, the lead screw coupled to the motor and includinga nut coupled to the guide arm; said cooling tube arm assembly beingoperatively coupled to said vertical post; a source of pressurized air;a slide housing for sliding vertically on the vertical post above theguide arm and including a key for extending through the vertical slotfor interconnecting the slide housing and the nut; conduit means forconnecting said source of pressurized air to said vertical coolingtubes; pressure regulator means in said conduit means for defining thepressure of the air delivered to said cooling tubes; and a control foroperating said motor to displace said vertical cooling tubes armassembly from said up position to said down position, wherein when thecooling tubes are in the up position the glass bottle is formed with afirst high pressure air and when the cooling tubes are in the downposition the glass bottle is cooled with a second lower pressure air,and for conjointly operating said pressure regulator to decrease thepressure of the air supplied to said vertical cooling tubes from thefirst higher pressure to the second lower pressure as said verticalcooling tubes are displaced from said up position to said down position;wherein each of said vertical cooling tubes is arranged and configuredto function alternately as a blow tube and as a cooling tube.
 13. Themechanism for delivering a cooling fluid to the interior of a hot glassbottle of claim 12, including the cooling tube arm assembly coupled tothe slide housing, wherein the cooling tube arm assembly is configuredto move vertically as the nut moves on the lead screw, the cooling tubearm assembly including the plurality of cooling tubes associated withthe plurality of blow heads.
 14. A mechanism for delivering a coolingfluid to the interior of a hot glass bottle after it has been formed inan I.S. machine according to claim 12, wherein the decrease in pressurefrom said first higher pressure to said second lower pressure is linear.15. The mechanism for delivering a cooling fluid to the interior of ahot glass bottle of claim 12, including an electronically controlledproportional valve coupled to the source of pressurized air and thecontrol.